Media accreditation is now open for the NATO Summit Wales 2014. Up to 1,500 journalists and other media representatives now need to register and go through security scrutiny before they can receive their passes to attend. Pretty standard stuff for such an event.
The Summit has been hailed as a 'great opportunity' for Newport, and although public feeling has done a 180 degree U-turn against the event, there are still die-hards insisting that it's going to be great for the city. But while we learn daily of more ways in which the Summit is going to be one big, expensive inconvenience, we have yet to see any actual sign of a benefit beyond 'it will raise the profile of the city'. Excuse me while I yawn.
The arrival in Newport of the massed ranks of the media has been one of the main carrots dangled from the start. The expectation was that thousands of journos would be descending on the city with their expense account credit cards, buying 'I Love Newport' t-shirts, eating in our restaurants, drinking in our pubs, and writing glowing reports of what a fabulous city this is and how people and businesses around the planet should think seriously about coming here.
That carrot has now passed its 'use by' date.
As well as opening registration for media passes, the Government has also appointed HRG as the nominated agency to book hotel accommodation for journalists and media crews who wish to attend the NATO Summit Wales 2014. It's a convenient service for international media flying in from all corners of the globe - a one-stop-shop where they can book their accommodation securely through a Government appointed representative.
However, there are only six hotels listed on the HRG webpage, and guess what? Four of the six are in Cardiff. But the picture for Newport is even bleaker because combined the two Newport hotels have only 346 rooms between them. The other 1154 rooms needed will be in the capital. So while a third of the hotels are in Newport, less than a quarter of the rooms needed are.
Obviously this is great news for Cardiff, its restaurants and businesses. And we can confidently predict there will be vastly more international promotion for Cardiff than Newport in any coverage surrounding the Summit. In fact, it will be pretty damned hard to find much positive pro-Newport coverage at all following the event.
But we have to be realistic here, because Newport is not overly well endowed with hotel accommodation away from the cluster around the Coldra roundabout. Once you take the Celtic Manor Resort out of the picture, the city simply doesn't have the capacity to comfortably accommodate 1,500 international journalists who will (rightly) be expecting something a bit better than the Travelodge in the city centre. So if you are the Government organising the Summit, it makes sense to work with Cardiff hotels. That's not where the issue lies here.
The issue is once again with the nonsense STILL being regurgitated by the die-hards and political optimists about 'a great opportunity' and how this is a chance to 'showcase Newport'. There are plenty of examples, for instance Conservative MP David Jones who recently tweeted...
.@NATOWales will be a huge opportunity to showcase Newport, one of the great commercial cities of Wales.
— David Jones (@DavidJonesMP) June 28, 2014
That's a big bold and oft repeated statement. But we need to see a bit of meat on the bones about how this is going to work. Because frankly, it's looking less obvious by the day.Just having famous world leaders descending on Celtic Manor Resort simply doesn't cut it as an answer to the question, because it doesn't think through the reality.
Mr Obama and the rest will have very tight schedules and will be tied up with the business of the Summit. It is highly unlikely they will have the time or inclination to go out sightseeing in Newport, and indeed with tens of thousands of protesters in the city they will be deterred from doing so by their security. So we can count out the political delegations who won't dare to venture anywhere near Newport, and we can also count out the majority of journalists who, if they do venture into the city, will do so only to cover the protests.
So who does that leave? Who are we counting on to witness and report to the world on our showcase opportunity? And what actual form is the 'showcase' taking? Perhaps if somebody could convincingly answer these questions we will at least know who we are targeting and how the city is going to do it.
UPDATE
A meeting of the HOC Welsh Affairs Committee entitled 'International Representation and Promotion of Wales by UK bodies' is scheduled to take place 2.30pm Wednesday 9th July. It can be followed live at http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=15752
No comments:
Post a Comment
PLEASE NOTE To stop those pesky scammers, all comments are moderated. Also, anonymous responses might not be accepted.